This Greene King pub is - or perhaps was - part of the Shoreditch gay scene though didn't seem to be quite as obviously gay I had expected and doesn't seem to wear its gay-ness on its sleeve the way it apparently once did. Well described below, the place does indeed seem to be geared more towards a late night venue with a DJ deck in the middle of the pub - there's a Thursday to Sunday 4.00 am licence. There's a lot of exposed brick and bare boards with pew furniture. The crowd (as such) is young and seemed to be mainly female with a couple of very camp characters tagging along.
Early evening the pub wasn't busy but service was really rather poor. Ales: two unused pumps, one with a Hardy & Hanson's Bitter clip reversed and thereafter just Greene King IPA at a fair £2.10 a half.
Disco pubs with young crowds and limited ale aren't my thing so I can't see myself returning.

Located down a side street, just a short distance from Shoreditch High Street station, the Horse and Groom is a traditional pub that seems to turn into a late night rave venue in the evenings. I visited at around 19:00 on a mid week evening and thankfully the place was still in traditional pub mode, allowing me to sup my pint in relative peace. The place looks very nice on approach, with a colourful pub sign, bright hanging baskets and restrained decorative front windows. You enter into a simple bar with sanded floorboards, light half panelled walls and a dark wood servery, which unfortunately all visually jars a little bit. There are tables and benches in a front nook next to what appears to be a former entrance (perhaps bottle and jug?) which has now been converted into a rather boxy looking snug. Some strange connected chairs run down the right hand wall, in front of a few small round tables, which made some of the chairs redundant as they were serving neither one table nor the other. A small, under-the-stairs style recess can be found behind these chairs, where the walls are papered with pages from Balzac's 'Eugene Grandet' for no discernable reason. The pub does apparently have some literary credentials though, as an archaeological dig in the rear garden uncovered traces of Shakespeare's Curtain Theatre where the bard reputedly performed in person. Back inside, the servery stands on the left hand wall with a traditional dark wood, mirrored bar back and a single, semi-ornate marble effect pillar in the middle of the counter. Further into the room, there are a couple of tables with low stools and a large TV screen showing Andy Murray's Wimbledon exit and moving even further back there is more seating and a drinking ledge. A DJ booth to one side hints at the pub's nocturnal music policy whilst flyers on each table provide more detail on the subject. The whole pub has an odd collection of items dotted around the place including stuffed birds and animals, an old gramophone, a model ship and some mannequin legs.
There are four hand pumps which were offering Greene King Brasilia, Copper Dragon Golden Pippen and St Austell Tribute, with a Greene King IPA clip turned around. The Golden Pippen was in fairly good shape, perhaps a little too warm, although the surly barman who served me struggled to mutter any kind of greeting.
This was a fairly decent place to stop off for a quick pint but despite having a bit of potential, the place has a bit of a weird feel to it and the pub's confused identity seemed to have put off customers as I pretty much had the place to myself despite other nearby venues being packed. I'd call again in passing, but only for a quick pit-stop.

This is a bit of a strange place as from the outside it looks like a traditional London boozer in name and façade, but upon entering one finds an ill kempt bar that seems to be geared towards late nights of dancing to niche music. The four hand pumps were all unused and my Guinness was a bit iffy, but not so that I wouldn’t knock it back. The barman was friendly, but he did look surprised to see me as the only customer enter the pub at 3pm when he’d just opened up. There was some vinyl playing cracks and all and there was also an interesting projector screen that is masked as a photo frame on the wall.

This place is open until 4am when there is a function on and I wouldn’t normally judge a pub when I’m the only customer, but this place is more of a student dance union and I doubt that I’ll return.